Any discussion of prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Point of sale (POS) terminals are used throughout the retail industry to process purchase transactions. A POS terminal typically includes a personal computer (PC) core in a chassis, one or more displays, an optical code scanner with weigh scale, a cash drawer, a magnetic stripe reader (MSR), keyboard and a printer. The POS terminals can either be self-service or assisted service.
The optical code scanner includes an imaging scanner and may also include a laser scanner. The two scanners use different technologies to independently read optical codes such as barcodes presented to the scanner. The laser scanner reads a barcode by sweeping a beam of laser light across a barcode, capturing data representing the reflected laser light, and then processing the captured data to recover information encoded in the barcode. An imaging scanner reads a barcode by capturing a complete image of the barcode and then processing the image to recover information encoded in the barcode.
Optical codes, such as barcodes, are generally affixed to or printed on items being presented to a POS terminal for purchase. The optical codes include information about the item they are affixed to or printed on. This information can include identification information for the item and the weight of the item if it is prepackaged and sold by weight. Some retailers have experienced a type of fraud where a person presents a false optical code, sometimes on a cell phone, instead of scanning the actual item being presented to the POS terminal for purchase. The false optical code has weight information that either matches or is approximately equal to the actual item so a weigh scale of POS terminal does not detect the substitution.
Therefore, to prevent the above fraud, as well as other related frauds, there is a need to determine if an optical code that is being presented to a POS terminal for scanning corresponds to the item being presented for purchase.